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Maybe a poll is needed??

I'm a little confused also. I didn't see mentioned anywhere that even with the five members of our Advisory team on board that they would be responsible for moderating the website. I think Cameo and Haffy have been doing a mighty fine job and would certainly give them my vote of confidence. Maybe a poll is needed and maybe we should go through the motions like we did with the adivsory members and nominate and vote for website moderators too?? I'd like to see them stay but certainly respect their decisions to step down if they choose to. From the sounds of other posts nobody wants to see them go. As far as jeapoardizing (sp?) friendships.........well, if the friendship is true & true, nobody should be faulting you for doing your job as a moderator, especially friends. I think maybe we need some insight and input from our newly elected Advisory board members on this issue. Hey folks....whatdoyathink?? If nominations for moderators are needed then I'll step up and nominate Cameooooo & Haffy

I'm a little confused also. I didn't see mentioned anywhere that even with the five members of our Advisory team on board that they would be responsible for moderating the website. I think Cameo and Haffy have been doing a mighty fine job and would certainly give them my vote of confidence. Maybe a poll is needed and maybe we should go through the motions like we did with the adivsory members and nominate and vote for website moderators too?? I'd like to see them stay but certainly respect their decisions to step down if they choose to. From the sounds of other posts nobody wants to see them go. As far as jeapoardizing (sp?) friendships.........well, if the friendship is true & true, nobody should be faulting you for doing your job as a moderator, especially friends. I think maybe we need some insight and input from our newly elected Advisory board members on this issue. Hey folks....whatdoyathink?? If nominations for moderators are needed then I'll step up and nominate Cameooooo & Haffy

Well I appreciate all the kinds words from everyone in here and also the PMs I have received. The truth of the matter is that the site really doesn't have any sort of set guidelines for moderators to go by per se. Sure we have the user agreements and all but those can be interpreted in so many ways. There is alot more that goes on behind the scenes than you can imagine. I would like to post all the PM's that I have gotten the past few months questioning my integrity and my honesty in regards to posts that have occurred. I have people asking me to delete posts and threads because they felt like they were being singled out for one reason or another. People have written me stating that I am not a good ambassador for geocaching in Maine amongst many other reasons. I have had to bite my tongue on many occasions and just sat back and tried to listen to all sides. I am really passionate about this site and geocaching in general and just can't in good conscience continue to be the punching bag for so many others who may not agree to things that are said about others and things that are said behind the scenes.

Hopefully in the very near future the board will be getting together and going over some good guidlines and some structure for the moderators to follow but right now with just the useragreement in place they can be interpreted in so many ways and it just makes it that much harder to enforce.

It is really hard to make judgements on someone or some subject when you have the same feelings as that person but know that it is not the right thing. Is that too confusing to understand? I hate to be the man in the middle so to speak and know that I have also put that responsibility onto to someone else and that I am sorry for doing. So until at sometime in the future when the site has some sort of structure to follow then I think the moderators job will be impossible to follow.

Rick has done an outstanding job with this site and I commend him for taking all the crap that he has taken over these last few months but it is something that I just can't take anymore. I will do anything in my power to help out in any other way to keep this site going and hope that with the new board things will be getting better. I'll be perfectly honest with you all too and that Rick has been really close to just shutting this site down but hopefully with more support from everyone here that it will continue to expand and evolve into something that we can all be proud of. Ok,now I'll get off my podium.

Cameoooooo I should have listened to you long ago when you asked if I knew what I was getting into............

Just smile it won't crack your face

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is
suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best
friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

I have to admit that I must have missed something. Instead of bring it up here would someone please pm me any of the cases that would justify Rick shutting down the site.

Yes we have had challenges to over come but nothing, not one thing that has happened here has ever got me that excited that I would ever be personally upset with anyone enough to just call it quits and say **** it I'm moving on. I have seen many challenging situations on this site but I think many times we are better folks talking about it and resolving it. I have had my problems with folks and was able to get by them and I would like to think that if folks had a problem with me that they would just let me know instead of complaining to someone else.

And I do think that we need moderators, but I didnt think they had anything to do with the board and vice versa

I don't think I am at liberty to state any of the actual cases. I don't even know the full details of any of them. But I will say that just like Geocaching.com volunteers, Rick and the moderators take a lot of abuse for many of the actions they take. And most times for no good reason.

As far as the board and moderators being separate, that is the way it should be, other than Rick is performing both roles, at least at the moment. But the decisions will be different nonetheless.

I think many people are confused because they are connecting the resignations with the vote. But it seems the resignations might have happened anyway, it was just unfortunate timing.

dave1976 : would someone please pm me any of the cases that would justify Rick shutting down the site.

PM? Why - I'll tell you the one and only reason this site would shut down (unless Rick has some bizarre personal reason not common to most humans, a possibility I wouldn't rule out but also wouldn't factor into consideration):

Boredom.

Sites like this don't die from the occasional flame war, or personal parting-of-the-ways, or even (unless it gets MUCH bigger) lack of finances.

They die from lack of interest.

Currently, that does not look like a major problem. But give a decade, a few major schisms, and Rick converting to Scientology, and with a whimper rather than a bang, we slowly wither away to a few posts a month. Then one year the domain renewal goes unpaid, and next thing you know, one day you go to type in "www.geocachingmaine.org" and get a VeriSign SiteFinder ad page.

And I do think that we need moderators, but I didnt think they had anything to do with the board and vice versa

I only have one question regarding that - What does the board "do"? So far, I and several others have asked that, and received only vague allusions to a meeting that, for various reasons, we could not attend.

I don't ask that to cause trouble. Right now, I see us on the edge of schism #1 (2?), as mentioned above, for no reason other than "organizing for organizing's sake".

Do we have goals? needs? A mission statement? A month or so back, I said that if we insist on organizing, we should take the most care in picking a secretary. Well, two people filling that role impromptu have now stepped down. Have we gained therefrom?

I have no problem with any of the board members. I only voted for two (three, maybe?) of the five winners, but I basically made a random pick from among a dozen equally qualified people and consider the winners all a good choice, from what I know of them. But WHY did we elect them? If no one has a good answer for that, we need to come up with one.

No "by default" winking smiley on this as one of my posts. I mean this quite seriously.

I only have one question regarding that - What does the board "do"? So far, I and several others have asked that, and received only vague allusions to a meeting that, for various reasons, we could not attend.

I don't ask that to cause trouble. Right now, I see us on the edge of schism #1 (2?), as mentioned above, for no reason other than "organizing for organizing's sake".

We're not sure of all the duties the board will perform, that will be determined with time. One big role is just helping to organize the web site interations. For example, the coin last year was a tough job of 1000 ideas and concerns. Half coming before decisions were made, and the rest coming after. Hopefully the board will work out a timeline - when ideas and designs can be submitted, then when they will be voted on and when the voting will end. And so on for any other issued dealing with the coin.

I'm sure in the not too distant future the board will explain what it's current goals, objectives, and capabilities will be. Give them some time to organize themselves and you will know soon.

What does the board do? It gets things done.
Do we have goals? The board has not made them yet.
Do we have a mission statement? No. We don't even know if we want one yet.
Why did we elect a board? The site owner will not dictate rules to us.
Should we have a secretary instead of a board? Decisions made for the group cannot be made by one person, no matter how well intentioned.

Albert Einstein said "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler".

Our site is too simple. Rick could have simply dictated all of the rules. Or, he could have picked one person and did whatever they said. Instead, he has left running the site to all of us.

I can tell you what the board will do. The board will address the health of this site. Thanks to Rick, we will start with no preconceived notions of what is required. We have a completely blank slate.

Please give us the chance to design a structure to fit the needs of GeocachingMaine.org